Fencing case moving slow

Almost a year and a half has passed since police raided local convenience stores suspected of running fencing operations, but no one has been indicted in the crimes.

Instead, four of the nine convenience store owners and employees who were arrested are facing civil asset forfeiture proceedings in which prosecutors want to keep tens of thousands of dollars and two commercial properties seized in the raids.

"That doesn't mean there won't be criminal prosecution, but any rational person might think there's something in the state's case where (prosecutors) are not comfortable going forward," said Mark Wiggins, a former prosecutor who represents one of the men in the forfeiture proceedings.

"For a case to linger and languish that long, that might mean there are some issues there," Wiggins said.

Trying to keep seized assets under state racketeering laws is easier because the burden of proof is lower than in criminal cases, he said.

Most people are indicted within a year of arrest, but 16 months have passed since officials rounded up the suspected fences.

On May 19, 2009, about 100 local, state and federal officials armed with search warrants raided stores and homes in Clarke, Oconee and Gwinnett counties, arresting nine people and seizing stolen property, gambling machines and cash.

At the time, residents were reporting several burglaries a day in the county's worst property crime wave in recent history, and police said they arrested some thieves who had shopping lists of specific items to steal.

The burglars got those lists from Stop & Shop, 645 Danielsville Road, and Magnolia Service Station and First Chance Package, both at 4450 Atlanta Highway, police said.

Police sent "cooperating sources" to the stores where employees told them what to steal, then paid them when they brought in laptop computers and a flat-screen TV that the employees believed were stolen, according to documents filed in Clarke County Superior Court.

The day of the raids, officials searched Magnolia Service Station, First Chance Package and the Athens home of the businesses' owner, Guatam "Tommy" Desai, and seized more than $31,000 cash, according to court documents.

His brother, Barkatali Nathani, and an employee, Tauvkir Hussain Momin, bought and sold stolen property at the store, and Momin had more than $7,000 on him alone at the time of the raid, according to court documents.

Officials seized that money plus bags of cash from a back office, along with $30,000 from an Athens bank account maintained by Ashraf Nathani's business, Mubarak Corp., and more money was seized from his home in Duluth, along with his store on Danielsville Road, according to documents.

Prosecutors filed the asset forfeiture cases in December, and they continue to wend their way through the court system.

In June, a Clarke County judge denied Desai's motion to dismiss his asset forfeiture case, and an evidentiary hearing in the other case is scheduled for Thursday.